This week many world leaders have gathered in New York to discuss progress toward reaching the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.  The goals, adopted in 2000 to address extreme poverty, intersect with many CBF ministries around the world.

Three years ago, the Fellowship officially endorsed the MDGs, though the ministry and work of CBF field personnel have focused on the world’s most marginalized people – including those in extreme poverty – since the beginning of CBF Global Missions in 1993. The Fellowship’s ministry is holistic, addressing the spiritual, physical, emotional and mental condition of people in need.

Here are eight CBF ministries that intersect with the MDGs: 

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger – Skopje, Macedonia
CBF field personnel Arville and Shelia Earl have been working since the spring of 2004 with a kindergarten, where children receive a nourishing meal and many make noticeable and significant health improvements in just a few months. 

Goal 2: Ensure access to primary schooling for all children – Kenya
CBF field personnel Melody and Sam Harrell provide primary education for those of limited means through “Change for Children,” which acts as a bridge for children left out of the education system. 

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women – Slovakia
CBF field personnel Dianne and Shane McNary coordinate an opportunity for female seminary graduates from Slovakia’s evangelical seminary to get chaplaincy internships at a hospital in the U.S. 

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality – Middle East
CBF Dom Ministry Team partners have been funding medical care and medications at a local clinic and hospital. As a result, the infant mortality rate, which had been climbing in this community, has dropped to near zero. 

Goal 5: Improve maternal health – Sub-Saharan Africa
CBF field personnel Fran and Lonnie Turner helped build a maternity wing at a rural health clinic.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases – Kiev, Ukraine
CBF field personnel Mina and Gennady Podgaisky work with ministries that test street children for HIV/AIDS and for tuberculosis. They help buy medicines for street children who cannot afford treatment, and they work with the only hospital that will treat street children. 

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability – Ethiopia
In June 2008, CBF Global Missions launched the Water for Hope safe water initiative — a community-based, relationship-based, partnership-based, and church-based program. It addresses both the attitudes and behavior that impact sustainability and productivity as well as provides for installing pumps, filters, and other safe water devices. 

Goal 8: Create a global partnership for development – India
CBF field personnel Eddie and Macarena Aldape help operate a rickshaw taxi business providing incomes for pastors. They also run a guest house and established a vocational training institute to help those who are under-employed have access to a livable wage.

Learn more about the MDGs through a free resource for your church. Check out 8 Ways to Change the World, a resource from CBF and Passport, to help educate and engage your entire congregation around the MDGs.